New industrial city in Jharkhand in the offing: Nitin Gadkari

Gadkari said that, while the multi-modal transport hub at Sahibganj would link Jharkhand to North-East, Bangladesh and also to Myanmar and other countries in the region, he has requested Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das to provide 5,000 acres land for a smart city near the hub.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has given Rs 400 crore for the completion of Ranchi-Jamshedpur NH-33, while a new industrial city spreading over 5,000 acres near the multi-modal transport hub in Sahibganj district is in the offing, Union minister for transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari said here on Thursday.

Four-laning of NH-33 has been hanging fire for more than five years now, while recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the long-awaited bridge on River Ganga at Sahibganj and a multi-modal transport, which would be part of the Varanasi-Hadia National Waterway-1.

Addressing a rally on the occasion of three years of the Modi government at Harmu Ground, Gadkari said: “I assure you that the NH-33 project would be completed by December and I would come to inaugurate it. The NHAI has given Rs 400 crore for the project, which is now 50 per cent complete. The problems were the legacy of the old government. Puraani sarkar ke paap the; bank bhaag gaya tha (it was misdeeds of the old government; banks had backed out of the project).” A flyover in Ranchi to ease traffic congestion has also been given the go-ahead, he added.

Gadkari said that, while the multi-modal transport hub at Sahibganj would link Jharkhand to North-East, Bangladesh and also to Myanmar and other countries in the region, he has requested Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das to provide 5,000 acres land for a smart city near the hub. “We are working on this proposal,” he said.